- April 19, 2024
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Palm Coast resident Carol Van Den Burg hollered and waved when she saw the alligator walk up behind her friend in the back yard, but the man, who was hard of hearing and facing away from her and the gator, didn’t hear her.
“I ran up and took him by the arm,” she said.
The gator, a small one about four feet long, was about 10 feet away when she reached him.
Van Den Burg has lived in Palm Coast’s Pine Lakes for 20 years, she said, and never had a problem with the gators there until a couple of years ago.
“Usually when I open my glass side doors, they keep moving,” she said. “But these little ones, these four- or five-footers, you open your door, and they hear it, they’ll come right up to you,” Van Den Burg said.
A trapper who came out after she called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s nuisance alligator line caught a small, aggressive gator within 20 minutes, and said it had likely been fed by people.
But it didn’t look like the bold one that had approached her friend, and soon after Van Den Burg saw another one in her yard that seemed the same size.
So, to see what happened, she opened her sliding glass door. The gator heard the door squeak, turned, and walked toward her, and she called FWC again. Trappers are still searching for that gator, she said.
Alligators that have been fed learn to approach people and can become dangerous, and feeding a crocodilian in Florida is crime.
"It's a statewide problem," said FWC spokesman Tony Young. "Some people feed alligators intentionally, not knowing it's illegal, some people feed alligators intentionally knowing it's illegal, and some people feed alligators unintentionally, by cleaning fish at a boat ramp and then throwing the bait and fish into the water," where alligators wait for the handout.
Feeding alligators is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and/or 60 days in jail.
To report an aggressive alligator, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's nuisance alligator hotline at 866-392-4286 (866-FWC-GATOR).
